It’s a statement of fact that the public school music education system in Los Angeles is beset with enormous problems. Simply follow the money trail find the main sites of the breakdown: state and local government, as they pertain to the education system. But our lingering economic problems, 11% unemployment (still the third-highest in the […]

Jazz pianist Billy Mitchell, founder of the Watts-Willowbrook Boys and Girls Club Conservatory, wasn’t sure at first if a classical music program in South Los Angeles would do any good. The community of Watts faced a host of challenges then, and still does: perennially underserved, claimed by gangs, in transition from African American to Latino, and […]

Before sunrise Thursday, April 12, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra Music Director Jeffrey Kahane came upon an upright piano standing fountain-side in downtown Los Angeles’s California Plaza. Coated in blue paint and ornamented with circles designed by members of the Braille Institute of Los Angeles, the piano awaited its debut later that same day as one of […]

After neighboring schools let out on Tuesdays and Thursdays, students of the Watts-Willowbrook Boys and Girls Club Conservatory walk to the Boys and Girls Club for rehearsal, if they are close enough; others are bussed in, to avoid runs-ins with gangs. For one hour in the afternoon, they practice on loaned violins, violas, cellos and […]

Sometimes music education comes cloaked in a somewhat unassuming robe. For instance, did you ever imagine that you could learn rhythm, flow and coordination through puppet play? Well, music plays a huge role in puppet mastery. A good puppeteer can make it look like the puppet is actually singing just by perfecting their bounce and […]

What do you get when you take the Prelude from Bach’s Cello Suite, 8 strings that descend in pitch as they shorten, nodes that orbit through the strings as the pluck, cross it with the Pythagorean Theorem and spit it out in Java script and HTML 5? A very cool music doodle! You too can […]

Where there is a music education hole to fill in schools in Los Angeles and the surrounding area, Education Through Music-LA swoops in to offer support. Upon moving to Los Angeles from New York City, where Education Through Music was developed, Executive Director Victoria Lanier, 34, noticed that many of the city’s disadvantaged schools lacked […]

Have you heard this before? Classical music is not for me, it’s for the… (elite, highbrow, educated, rich, etc). This is a perception that we are bending over backwards to break at Lyrical LA! When you hear the term ‘classical music education’ it is easy to picture kids sitting in a room learning to play […]

Tucked neatly inside the heart of Boyle Heights you will find a neighborhood gem that dates back to the turn of the century. The Neighborhood Music School is a non-profit organization dedicated to strengthening the surrounding community through education in the musical arts. The school is housed in one of the oldest Victorian homes in […]

The Harmony Project is a nonprofit that targets at-risk youth in underserved areas of Los Angeles. They promote positive youth development through on-going year-round music lessons and ensemble participation. Their mission is: To promote the healthy growth and development of children through the study, practice and performance of music. To build healthier communities by investing […]